A California Indian tribe and its Florida partner said Friday that they plan to begin operating a San Diego-based gambling cruise ship later this month, despite failing to win Gov. Gray Davis' approval of special legislation the partnership said it needed to legally launch its floating casino.

Daniel not come home. Linda LaPorte stood in the kitchen of her home in Pascoag, R.I., holding her cellphone. Her son's Thai girlfriend was calling from San Diego, speaking a mile a minute in fractured English. He said call mom if he not come home. Linda and her husband, Joseph, had called their son just days earlier to wish him a happy 27th birthday. He'd said nothing about traveling anywhere. Yet here was his girlfriend saying he'd gone to Mexico on business with a guy named Big Daddy.

Capping the most grueling contest of his professional career, Jeff Booth of Laguna Beach went the extra mile Sunday to win the Pro-Am Surfing Division of the $35,000 Body Glove Oceanside Open. With the victory, his first in three years, Booth won $5,750, earning about $1 for every foot he ran in the semifinals and finals to escape a vicious rip current that towed competitors north into the south side of the Oceanside Pier. "It was tough out there," said Booth, 21.

I am upset with Gustav Lopez's Nov. 23 letter. I really don't believe U.S. citizens think Mexico's drinking and driving laws are any different. There is one major difference [when] driving under the influence of alcohol on U.S. highways and in Mexico. In the U.S. one can drive illegally without insurance, get free medical care if necessary, then sue the restaurant or bar that served you and go home rich. In Mexico you go straight to jail and there is no medical care with or without money.

Three children were killed Monday when their mother's sport utility vehicle struck the rear of a parked truck in Malibu. The mother and her other child were seriously injured, said Sgt. Kevin Mauch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Maria Guerrero's Isuzu Rodeo slammed into the semitrailer attached to the truck west of Carbon Canyon on Pacific Coast Highway shortly after 6 a.m., Mauch said. The family was returning to Oxnard from a trip to Rosarito Beach in Mexico, he said.

Jim Simon, program director of talk-radio station XEKAM-AM (950), is optimistic that his station, which was shut down by the government earlier this week, will be back on the air soon--possibly by today. But the program lineup probably will be different.

Three-year-old Myrna Guardado didn't seem to understand all the fuss being made over her. Myrna was resting in bed, surrounded by adults who dangled toys and dolls. Her hospital room at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank was crowded with flowers and more toys. A couple of days before, Myrna had been brought to the medical center from her home in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

Ken Halle, 89, of Hawthorne will become the oldest person ever to receive a high school diploma from Torrance Adult School at the Meadow Park Adult Center, Principal Cal Eubanks said. Halle, who quit school in Pennsylvania at age 13 to support his mother, said he resumed his studies in October "just to say I did it." A former steel mill foreman and maintenance man, Halle said his favorite subject was math. His fellow classmates honored him May 15 with a surprise birthday and graduation party.

If you're hoping to find an unusual gift for the movie buff on your Christmas list, you may be able to do that while also helping 20th Century Fox retire its considerable debt from the budget of "Titanic." Some pricey, one-of-a-kind artifacts among the "Titanic" collectibles offered in the current J. Peterman Gift Book include a 13-foot fiberglass anchor used in James Cameron's "Titanic" ($25,000), and six fiberglass lifeboats--none of which are seaworthy ($25,000 each). But you have to hurry.

Three-year-old Myrna Guardado didn't seem to understand all the fuss being made over her. Myrna was resting in bed, surrounded by adults who dangled toys and dolls. Her hospital room at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank was crowded with flowers and more toys. A couple of days before, Myrna had been brought to the medical center from her home in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.